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The Rigorous Christian Life

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An old friend once said to me, “I enjoy what’s easy. I don’t enjoy what’s hard.” I enjoy sitting around a table with people over good food and conversation. Equally, I enjoy taking a day off where I have nothing to do. Both require very little investment other than me showing up. Yet, I often find that what’s helpful for me is not completely enjoyable. For instance, I don’t really enjoy getting up at the crack of dawn to have a devotional time before I head to the gym. Both require an investment, a sacrifice, and neither are “fun” yet both are incredibly important.

When a person becomes a Christian for the first time there’s a certain ease to it. I remember what it was like as a grad student in Boulder thinking to myself, “I really enjoy my devotional time reading the Bible each day!” It felt easy to do; something I thought would travel with me for the rest of my life. To my shock, I soon discovered what I knew was helpful for me carried with it a certain resistance. I was even more shocked to realized how hard it was (is) for my character to change. I can practice putting a golf ball and become skilled at it. But how do I become proficient in becoming the right kind of person?

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:7, “…but train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” There is a rigorous training in the Christian life but it’s not the kind of training that focuses primarily on your will to accomplish something. For instance, one should not look at the fruit of the Spirit, or any command in the Bible to be virtuous and approach it as if they could make themselves be “that”.

John Ortberg in The Life You’ve Always Wanted, taking his cue from Dallas Willard writes, “The Christian gospel insists that transformation of the human personality really is possible. Never easy. Rarely quick. But possible” 1 There is a re-training that all of us who follow Christ are invited to enter into. It’s not forced. Nor does transformation happen magically. Rather, it’s something that we choose to enter into because we sense it’s actually the way to become the kind of person who look more like Christ. Yet, as Ortberg points out this training is neither easy nor quick.

Here’s one question: When you read over Galatians 5 and the fruit of the Spirit, granted it’s a package deal as in singular “fruit”, can you identify one virtue that you know you lack in your character? What would your spouse or close friend say is an obvious “hole in your character”? If you now know that you can’t become “that” by just gritting your teeth and trying harder every day, there is now a gracious demand for you to enter into a rigorous re-training so your character is formed. Where do you start? More to come…